Myanmar cyclone death toll nearly 78,000
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - May 16, 2008 Aid workers shackled by the country's military regime struggled
to get even the most basic data about the needs of up to 2.5
million survivors. The Red Cross warned that a lack of clean water
may swell the ranks of the dead.
Myanmar state television said the official death count from the
May 3 cyclone was 77,738, with 55,917 others missing.
The toll was nearly double the 43,000 previously reported, but
the TV announcement suggested it might be close to a final figure.
It said the government had "carried out search and rescue and
relief work and collection of data, promptly, immediately and
extensively."
The release of the figures led to dire warnings from the United
Nations and renewed calls for the military regime to allow
international aid workers access to devastated areas.
"More than two weeks after the event, we are at a critical
point," said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "Unless more aid
gets into the country - quickly - we face the risk of an outbreak
of infectious diseases that could dramatically worsen today's
crisis."
Jean-Maurice Ripert, France's ambassador to the U.N., criticized
the junta for refusing to allow a French navy ship to deliver 1,500
tons of food, drugs and medication to the Irrawaddy delta using
small boats.
He said refusing to allow aid to be delivered to those in need
"could lead to a true crime against humanity if we go on like
that."
Myanmar's ruling junta, meanwhile, put up a security cordon
around Yangon to restrict travel to the Irrawaddy delta, where
scenes of devastation were rife.
A small tour to the disaster zone arranged for Saturday will
give diplomats their first up-close look at the effects of the
cyclone and at the government relief effort.
John Holmes, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian
affairs, was to go to Myanmar on Sunday in an attempt to persuade
the junta to admit more U.N. relief workers and to greatly increase
aid efforts, said Amanda Pitt, a U.N. spokeswoman in Bangkok,
Thailand.
"If you look at the situation with China, they have accepted
relief and assistance teams from Russia, Taiwan and Japan," Pitt
said, referring to the response to the earthquake there. "They
know they can't do it on their own."
The junta maintains it has the situation under control. But
after two weeks, the U.N. remains largely in the dark about the
situation on the ground.
"We simply don't have the information, and I can't say when we
will have it," said Steve Marshall, a U.N. official who just left
Myanmar.
The Red Cross has put the death toll as high as 128,000 and the
most recent official figures on dead and missing have the U.N.
saying the number could easily reach 130,000.
The highest death estimate is carried by the British
government's Department for International Development, which says
that "unofficial estimates suggest the number of dead or missing
is in the region of 217,000." The department said the estimate was
reported to them by sources on the ground with knowledge of the
situation. They gave no other details and said the estimates could
not immediately be verified.
The U.N. estimates some 1.5 million to 2.5 million survivors are
in desperate need of food, water, shelter and medical care.
"If the storm was so massive that it's basically swept away,
killed 130,000 people, we can only imagine what it's done to
settlements on the ground," said Stephanie Bunker, a New
York-based spokeswoman for Holmes.
Myanmar is entering the monsoon season and disaster experts warn
the wet weather could complicate relief efforts. Heavy rain pelted
the country Friday.
Aid groups have reached only 270,000 people so far, and the
situation for survivors will likely get more difficult as time
passes without proper help.
Lack of clean water will be deadly in the Irrawaddy delta,
Thomas Gurtner, the head of operations for the international Red
Cross, told The Associated Press in Geneva.
"To be able to provide clean water to hundreds of thousands of
people stranded in the delta requires a major operation, which we
have neither the material, the logistical nor the staff capacity to
do," he said.
Officials also worry about disease outbreaks.
The U.S. military flew four more flights of emergency supplies
into Yangon on Friday, raising its total to 17 since Monday. Two of
the flights carried aid provided by the Thai government. India was
also readying flights.
The U.N. says the regime has issued only 40 visas to its
staffers and another 46 to nongovernment agencies and has confined
the personnel to the immediate Yangon area.
Marshall, the U.N. official, said the military has set up
checkpoints on the two main roads to the delta to keep foreigners
out of the disaster zone. Even local staff have to negotiate with
the military to gain access to the camps.
UNICEF said Friday the agency's fourth flight into Myanmar,
scheduled for Saturday, would deliver several tons of food for
malnourished children. Radio broadcasts are trying to help lost
children find their families, it said.
In the meantime, ordinary people are stepping in, with
shopkeepers handing out rice gruel and medical students caring for
the sick.
But the government was reportedly interfering with those efforts
as well.
In an interview with the Democratic Voice of Burma, the abbot of
Mandalay's Maha Gandaryon monastery said monks were stockpiling
relief supplies and getting trucks to take in aid.
"We are still in the preparation stages," he told the radio,
which is critical of the junta. "We have contacted some private
organizations and services, and found out that they were told by
the authorities not to work with us in aid distribution. They said
we can't go with them."